Harbans Lal, J. - (1.) The sole but important question arising in this writ petition is whether the reservation of the solitary post of Head Assistant in the office of the Director, Social Welfare Department, Punjab Government in favour of a Scheduled Caste by the instructions contained in Annexure P. 2 issued on Dec. 16, 1972 is not hit by Art. 16 of the Constitution.
(2.) The facts are quite brief and are not in dispute. The petitioner was appointed as Assistant ('B'grade) in the Social Welfare Department and was promoted as a senior scale Assistant with effect from July 27, 1964. Since then he has been working in that capacity The respondent No 3 was working as Accountant in the same department and was promoted by respondent No. 2 as Head Assistant by his order dated Jan. 9, 1975, copy of which is Annexure P. 1, though he was Junior to the petitioner, only on the ground that he was a member of Scheduled Caste and the post had been reserved for the Scheduled Caste Separate replies have been filed by respondent No. 3 as well as the State One of the contentions raised is that the post of Head Assistant was reserved in 1972 by the instructions (Annexure P. 2), but the vires of the same were not challenged at any time except through the present writ petition which was filed on June 23, 1975 It has also been averred that the post of Head Assistant was created in 1964 by order Annexure R-3/1.
(3.) Till the appointment of respondent No. 3 to this post, the same was always held by a non-Scheduled Caste. Shri S.L. Sharma was the first promotee till July 25, 1964. Thereafter, Shri O.N. Khindria was promoted who continued working on the said post till Oct. 31, 1966 As a result of re-organisation of Punjab State into Punjab and Haryana, Shre O.N. Khindria was allocated to Haryana and as a consequence, Shri S. L. Sharma was again promoted on Nov. 1, 1966 and he held the post till Jan. 4, 1968. Shri Satnam Dass succeeded him till Jan. 23, 1969 Thereafter, this post was occupied by Shri R.S. Kalia till June, 1970. Again Shri S.S. Sharma was promoted to this post and he continued working on the said post till June, 1973. After him, again Shri R. S. Kalia was appointed as Head Assistant in which capacity he continued working till Dec., 1974 It was only on Jan. 9. 1973 that respondent No. 3, who is a member of the Scheduled Caste, for the first time was appointed against this post.;